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Rossini’s William Tell
11th Jul 2011
Gerald Finley is the sharp-shooting Swiss hero on Antonio Pappano’s absorbing account of Rossini’s opera, with John Osborn sounding effortless in the taxing high role of Arnaud, and Malin Byström an expressive Mathilde.
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Bach Motets from Herreweghe
4th Jul 2011
The Belgian Bach scholar and conductor and Collegium Vocale Gent return to works which they first recorded back in 1981, bringing crystal-clear textures, impeccable intonation and excellent ensemble to the six motets.
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Sublime Vivaldi from Nathalie Stutzmann
27th Jun 2011
The French contralto sings and conducts her chamber ensemble Orfeo 55 (formed two years ago) with passion and panache in a celebration of the ‘Red Priest’’s roles for female characters – many of them originally portrayed by castrati.
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Byrd’s Complete Consort Music
13th Jun 2011
The Gramophone Award-winning viol consort Phantasm brings sweetness and sensuality to the English composer’s fantasias, In Nomines and pavans and galliards on Linn Records.
Featured product
Byrd: Complete Consort Music
Phantasm, Laurence Dreyfus
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Vaughan Williams’s The Garden of Proserpine
6th Jun 2011
Paul Daniel and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra make a splendid case for Vaughan Williams’s early setting of poetry by Algernon Charles Swinburne for solo soprano, chorus and orchestra, coupled with In the Fen Country.
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Beethoven's Diabelli Variations from Paul Lewis
30th May 2011
Following his masterly traversals of the complete piano concertos and sonatas, the British pianist imbues the Diabelli Variations with humour, exuberance and poetic beauty in a recording which stands comparison with his mentor Alfred Brendel.
Featured product
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120
Paul Lewis (piano)
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New DVDs from Glyndebourne
23rd May 2011
South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo is endearing and compelling in the title-role of Billy Budd (directed by Michael Grandage), whilst Gerald Finley is an elegantly rakish Don Giovanni in Jonathan Kent’s 1950s staging.
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Daniel Barenboim plays Chopin and conducts Tchaikovsky
2nd May 2011
The pianist joins Andris Nelsons and the Staatskapelle Berlin for the two Chopin piano concertos, and conducts an electrifying Pathétique with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with the late Edward Said.
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Fliter and Ibragimova excel in Beethoven
25th Apr 2011
Ingrid Fliter records the Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 17 and 23 on Warner Classics, and Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien continue their excellent series of the violin sonatas on Wigmore Hall Live.
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Lully’s Bellérophon
11th Apr 2011
Christophe Rousset presides over a splendidly elegant account of Lully’s 1679 opera, with Cyril Auvity in the title-role, and Les Talens Lyriques on vigorous form.
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Rachmaninov's Second Symphony
28th Mar 2011
Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia bring unrivaled passion and commitment to the 1907 symphony in this live recording made in Rome in 2009.
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Suk's Asrael Symphony
21st Mar 2011
In one of his last performances with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the late Sir Charles Mackerras conducts a magnificent account of the underrated 1906 symphony, composed in memory of Suk’s mentor and father-in-law Dvořák.
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Pergolesi's Stabat Mater
14th Mar 2011
Anna Netrebko and Marianna Pizzolato join Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’ Accademia di Santa Cecilia for an unusually full-blooded account of Pergolesi’s best-known work, plus a chamber cantata apiece.
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Striggio: Mass in 40 Parts
7th Mar 2011
Robert Hollingworth and I Fagiolini give the world premiere recording of the Italian Renaissance composer’s mighty Missa Ecco si Beato Giorno, rediscovered and identified in Paris five years ago, and composed shortly before Tallis’s Spem in alium.
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Tomás Luis de Victoria
28th Feb 2011
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen marks the 400th anniversary of the Spanish composer’s death with a ‘beautifully sung and superbly recorded’ new album centring on the Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater.
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Lisa Batiashvili - Echoes of Time
21st Feb 2011
The Georgian violinist makes her debut on Deutsche Grammophon with a program of works by composers whose lives and music were influenced by political upheaval in the former Soviet Union, including Shostakovich, Kancheli and Pärt.
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Kate Royal: A Lesson in Love
14th Feb 2011
The British soprano and Malcolm Martineau present an eclectic programme of German, French, American and Italian songs tracing a young girl’s first love-affair, including music by Debussy, Liszt, Wolf, Schumann and Bolcom.
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Simon Rattle's new Mahler 2
7th Feb 2011
24 years after his landmark recording of the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony with Dame Janet Baker and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rattle returns to the piece with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Kate Royal and Magdalena Kožená.
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Percy Grainger
31st Jan 2011
The fiftieth anniversary of the Australian pianist, composer and all-round eccentric brings reissues of his own recordings on APR and a tribute from Benjamin Britten and friends, plus the Jungle Book from John Mark Ainsley, Polyphony and Stephen Layton.
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Arne: Artaxerxes
24th Jan 2011
Ian Page and the Classical Opera Company resurrect the British composer’s ornate depiction of skulduggery in Ancient Persia, premiered in London in 1762, with Christopher Ainslie in the title-role and Elizabeth Watts as his firebrand sister.
